As Amaechi Restores The Garden City’s Lost Glory

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Published: June 6, 2009

 

On May 29, Nigerians marked ten years of unbroken civilian rule. It is the first time since Nigeria became independent 49 years ago that civilians would superintend over the affairs of the country for so long without the uncouth and self-serving intrusion of the military. That in itself is a significant development that calls for celebration. But not many are in celebrative mood. And the reason is simple.

Expectation was quite high in 1999 that Nigeria, having once again joined the League of Nations where the people, through the power of the ballot box, determine who governs them will also reap the dividends of democracy. This has not happened. Instead, the reverse is the case. Despite the unprecedented revenue that accrued from the sale of crude oil in the last ten years, the woes of the people and the country itself have never been more pronounced. Life in Nigeria in the last ten years has become insufferable and beyond the pale.

In the circumstance, it is easy to give in to despair and remain forlorn.

But in this darkened political firmament, there are still a few bright stars whose achievements tend to remind us that all hope is not lost. Through their achievements, they are radiating positive aura, sending out a strong message that at the other end of this darkened tunnel of gloom and despondency, there is indeed the chance that we may encounter the glowing light of triumph.

One of such rays of hope is Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, the Governor of Rivers State. When his colleagues were celebrating their second year in office on May 29, he didn’t join them because he is yet to spend two years. A victim of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s “jackboot democracy,” Amaechi won the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) gubernatorial primary election in Rivers State where he was Speaker of the House of Assembly for eight years but was unilaterally disqualified by Obasanjo.

He was only sworn in on October 26, 2007 when the Supreme Court, in a bold affirmation of the essence of internal democracy, ruled that as the winner of the primary election, he, rather than Celestine Omehia (the man who was given the ticket), ought to have contested the April 14, 2007 governorship election. Therefore, if the PDP won the election, Amaechi, who the people elected as their candidate, should be the rightful occupant of the Brick House (Rivers State Government House) rather than Omehia, who was whimsically imposed on a hapless party by a man who was playing God.

For a man who has a four-year term, 19 months may not be enough time to come to a definite conclusion on his ability to deliver. But it is time enough to determine where he is headed. When Amaechi took over the reins of power from Omehia, Rivers, technically speaking, was in a state of war. Gunmen and cultists, who became Lords of the Manor between 2003 and 2007, held the state hostage, almost making it ungovernable. Amaechi had two options – pacify them at the expense of the common good as his predecessors did or call their bluff. He chose to do the latter. But that was after the militants spurned all effort to make them realize that peace and development are two sides of the same coin. Amaechi believes that there must be a dividing line between criminality and genuine agitation for the improvement of the awful lot of the people of Niger Delta. That decision has paid off. Today, any visitor to Port Harcourt, Nigeria’s famed Garden City, in the past one year will attest that the once seedy capital is gradually reclaiming its lost glory.

Just like Governor Babatunde Fashola in Lagos, Amaechi’s administration is investing massively in infrastructure. One of the greatest problems of the city is lack of good road networks. Amaechi is tackling this problem headlong with the construction of new roads and expansion and dualisation of old ones. Literally, he has turned the state into a massive construction yard.

The Rumuola/Rumuokwuta road which links Aba and Ikwerre roads is being dualised in a bid to ease the flow of traffic in Port Harcourt. There are also the Ada-George/Airport Road that runs from Agip Junction on Ikwerre Road to the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, which will connect the old Port Harcourt city with a new one – Greater Port Harcourt city. These roads and many more are not only dual carriage ways but come with covered drainages, paved walkways, median, trees and flowers and street lights. 

Flyovers are also being constructed to ease the grueling traffic situation in the city. But these roads are not limited to Port Harcout as the rural areas have their fair share. But the most fascinating aspects of this urban renewal project are the Greater Port Harcourt City and the public, private partnership-funded Rainbow Town Estate. Lack of visionary leadership has left Port Harcourt one of the most congested and seedy cities in Nigeria. These two projects will reverse the situation. When completed, the Rainbow Town Estate is expected to have 1000 housing units and the state government’s contribution is only the land. The entire project will be funded by the First Bank. The idea behind the new Greater Port Harcourt city is the decongestion of the old city which is being restored to its old glory with the demolition of illegal structures particularly along the waterfronts, planting of trees for greenery and building of recreation parks.

The first thing he did when he assumed office was to return mission schools to their owners and thereafter declared a state of emergency in the education sector. His firm belief that a country can only toy with the primary education of its citizenry at its own peril convinced him to take over the funding of primary education from the local governments. That move has proved strategic. Today the government is building 250 new primary schools spread across all the 23 local governments of the state and ultra modern secondary schools that will have state-of-the-art facilities.

He is a student of the school of integrated development that strives not to leave out any sector; which explains why his health programmes are as grandiose as education and urban renewal.

David Iyofor, his media aide says the Governor is driven by the passion to rebuild the state and the zeal to leave enduring legacies of development and prosperity. There is no doubt that he is on the right track.

But the undeniable success of the few oases of competence, like Fashola and Amaechi, in the desert of leadership ineptitude called Nigeria raises a fundamentally question. Why are they succeeding where others only see failure? Why were the governors who ruled these states for eight years, at the peak of the oil boom, not able to achieve in those years what these governors have achieved in less than two years?

The answer lies in the vision and sincerity of purpose of the leadership.

But there is another issue. Imagine what the long suffering indigenes of Rivers State would have lost if the Justices of the Supreme Court hadn’t the presence of mind to affirm the supremacy of the people by insisting that the man who won a primary election should be the candidate at the general election? As I stated last week, we play the ostrich when we divorce our problematic general elections from the injustice at the primaries. When only one man takes it upon himself to decide who contests elections, no-matter what the people say, then the general election has been rigged even before the first ballot is cast. To pretend otherwise is the height of hypocrisy and chicanery.

War Against Corruption: Tales From Other Lands

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Published: May 16, 2009

 

Most Nigerian leaders on assumption of office make the fight against corruption the “epicentre” of their regimes. The incumbent President, Umaru Yar’Adua, is not left out.

When his predecessor Olusegun Obasanjo was first sworn in on May 29, 1999, he also made such a great fuss of his “determination” to fight corruption. Many who had come to see the cankerworm of sleaze as the bane of Nigeria’s socio-economic and political development heaved a sigh of relief. As a battle tested soldier, who loves flaunting his war exploits, it was taken for granted that he would triumph. Ten years after that solemn promise, the jury is still out as to whether he conquered corruption or indeed the reverse was the case. President Yar’Adua, wittingly or unwittingly, is sailing in the same self-deception boat.

Why do Nigerian leaders fail woefully in this self-assigned job? The simple answer is that it takes more than rhetoric to fight graft. They fail because they have no sense of shame. A man with neither sense of shame nor remorse cannot wage a successful war against corruption.

Recent events in two countries will illustrate this point.

On Saturday, former South Korean President, Roh Moo-hyun, hurled himself off a 100-foot high cliff. He died instantly, aged 62. In a country where life expectancy for men is 75, the former President cut his own life short by at least 13 years.

Why?

Because the man who occupied Seoul’s Presidential Blue House for five years was embroiled in a corruption scandal and was horror stricken that his hard-won reputation was about to be thrown to the dogs. His family was alleged to have taken $6 million in bribes from a wealthy businessman, Park Yeon-cha, who was earlier indicted on separate bribery and tax evasion charges.

The former President denied the allegations. Though he admitted his wife and relative received the money in question from the disgraced businessman, he did not see it as bribe. His wife, he said, was given $1 million to help her settle a debt, while the $5 million to a relative was an investment. None of the money came to him directly. It was not proved that he used his family members as fronts in illicit deals.

Nevertheless, he apologized. “I feel ashamed before my fellow citizens. I am sorry for disappointing you,” he told his supporters on April 30.

For a man who came to power in 2003 promising to make a clean break from his country’s graft-ridden political past, he could not bear the emotional burden of having his reputation tainted. For him, death was preferred to a soiled name.

He said that much in his suicide note. “Too many people are suffering because of me … What is left for me for the rest of my life is just to be a burden to others. Don’t be too sad. Aren’t life and death both part of nature? Don’t feel sorry. Don’t blame anybody. It is destiny,” he wrote.

Can anybody imagine a Nigerian President’s wife owing $1 million? Impossible! Not even his mistress would suffer the “indignity” of owing such a paltry sum. Yet, here is the wife of South Korean President, a country with the third largest economy in Asia and 13^th in the world, being in debt with the husband not being able to help. Can anybody imagine a former Nigerian President turning himself in for interrogation over money loaned his wife by a businessman? Impossible!

Lawmakers in the British House of Commons have been in the news in the past couple of weeks over a damning expenses scandal.  And what is it about? In a country where lawmakers must religiously keep in touch with their constituents, most have to live in two places – in their constituencies and in London where they attend Parliament. They are, therefore, allowed to claim expenses to cover the cost of running a second home in London. Details of these claims were leaked to the media and Britons are mad that their representatives in Parliament have not only been making outrageous claims but also avoiding tax on home sales. This has led to the charge of extravagance and heads are rolling politically.

Many of the Parliamentarians are aborting their political careers. The House of Commons Speaker, Michael Martin, whose crime is the perception by some that he was the driving force behind efforts to stop details of the scandal coming out, has resigned.

Justice Minister, Shahid Malik, has stepped down pending an inquiry into whether his failure to declare a preferential rent deal on his constituency home broke the ministerial code. Former Agriculture Minister, Elliot Morley, and backbencher, David Chaytor, have been suspended by their party – Labour Party. Both of them reportedly claimed for mortgage interest months after the mortgages had been paid off.  Mr. Morley also lost his job as Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s climate change envoy.

Andrew MacKay, a Parliamentary aide to Conservative leader, David Cameron, has also quit his post after the party ruled his second home claims were “unacceptable”. He has also decided not to seek re-election. “I understand why people are angry. I hope my decision to step down goes some way to showing my constituents how sorry I am about my own situation,” he said while announcing his decision.

He is not alone. The former Conservative Minister, Douglas Hogg, has said he will not seek re-election; Sir Peter Viggers is also to retire “at the direct request of David Cameron;” another lawmaker, Anthony Steen, said to have claimed more than £87,000 over four years for his country home, is also standing down at the next election. Most of them have paid back the money.

British media report that “there is genuine concern among members of Parliament that the legislature has never been held in lower regard by members of the public. Even MPs who have done nothing wrong are reported to be considering quitting as they are considered “crooks” by the public. Some fear Parliament may take years to recover from the furore.”

Gordon Brown has warned that any “Labour MP who ‘defied’ the rules will not be able to stand again.” Cameron has set up his own scrutiny panel and warned that any Tory lawmaker refusing to return money excessively claimed could be sacked. The Liberal Democrats say no lawmaker should be able to make a profit on the sale of a home which was subsidised by the taxpayer.

Cast your mind back home. Two weeks ago, President Umaru Yar’Adua’s Adviser on Petroleum, Emmanuel Egbogah, alleged that Federal Lawmakers were colluding with oil companies to work against the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) pending in the National Assembly. The multinational oil companies they were supposed to checkmate ferried them to Ghana for a retreat which sole aim was to devise means of shooting down the Bill. Senate President, David mark, said it was a blackmail from the Presidency, even when the members of the Senate Committees on Gas, Environment, Petroleum Resources and Finance have owned up to the trip.

There is no outrage. Nobody feels it is morally reprehensible to collude with foreigners to work against the interest of fellow citizens in exchange for filthy lucre. None of the legislators has returned the estacode. None of the political parties has sanctioned its members that went on the trip.

The leadership of the House of Representatives survived the car purchase scandal even when there was glaring evidence that Nigerians were shortchanged in the deal.

 

The N6 billion rural electricity scam currently rocking the National Assembly will soon be forgotten. The accused lawmakers will return to their seats as soon as they are granted bail as if nothing happened. There is no sense of shame and the people have the capacity for outrage.

Little wonder corruption easily wins the war against Nigeria and its leaders.

TRIBUTE TO OUR FATHER, NZE ALEXANDER AMADIKWA AMAECHI

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

We are all gathered here today to celebrate the life and death of our father, Nze Alexander Amadikwa Anamelechi Amaechi, who was called to eternal glory on Thursday, April 2, 2009 at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Owerri.

Born on March 24, 1932 to Amaechi Akarakpo and his first wife, Odionye, Papa was the last of the seven children of his mother. His father’s second wife, Ugo-ocha, had three other children. With the death of Papa, only one of the ten children of Akarakpo and his two wives is still alive today.

He attended St. Bede’s Primary School, Obohia where he obtained the Standard Six Certificate. He later acquired a Diploma Certificate in Marketing through a Correspondence College. With both certificates, and an infectious charisma, he went into the world of salesmanship where he shone like a million stars.

 Though his was a modest education, all who came in contact with him can testify that he was a man of prodigious intellect, a gift he deployed fully in all the places he worked. He was an administration guru and salesman per excellence. He left home in his youth in search of the axiomatic greener pasture. In the process, he worked in many blue chip companies, in all parts of the country, most times in management capacity.

But it was in Marketing that he made the most enduring mark. His stint at the Sterling Industries International, a pharmaceutical company, makers of different drugs including Cafenol, was, perhaps, the most remarkable. So successful was he in marketing the brand that he was nicknamed Cafenol, a name many called him several years after he left the company. His marketing skills not only took him to different parts of the country, but also different parts of Africa.

On December 19, 1965, he wedded former Miss Appolonia Agbonma Ugo in the Catholic Church in Enugu. The marriage is blessed with eight children – four boys (Ikechukwu, Chukwuma, Chidiebere, Chijioke) and four girls (Chinyere, Ndidi, Vivian, Ngozi).

Papa was not the sickly type. He had no life threatening ailment known to us. About six months ago, he went for a comprehensive medical check-up and all the results were negative. Therefore, when my younger sister, Ngozi, called on Monday, March 30, to say he was not feeling fine and that she would take him to the hospital to be examined by the Doctors the following day, there was no reason for us to be agitated. Even when the doctor said he was going to admit him, we agreed and there was no premonition of his death. The idea was for him to have a deserved bed rest. Little did we know that God had other plans. He wanted him to have eternal rest.  Indeed, that was about the first time he was going on admission. It was also his last. Two days after, he was gone. Knowing Papa well, that was the only way he would love to take his final bow – peacefully.

Are we mourning? Yes, of course. We are because we are human. In his death, we have not only lost a husband, father, grandfather, uncle and brother, but we have also lost a friend, a confidant and a role model. We are grieving because we have lost our counselor, the man from whom we got our inspiration.   

But we are consoled that though at 77 years, Papa may not have died at the axiomatic ‘ripe old age,’ yet, his was not a premature death. Agreed, we would have loved him to live much longer, to enjoy the fruits of his labour, but we are also not unmindful of the fact that what is important in the life of every human being is not how long one lives, but how well. Or as the philosophers would say, “It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives.”

Nze Amaechi lived well and it is in that sense that we celebrate today, even as we mourn. We are celebrating because in the theatre of life, he played his God-given role well and he died a fulfilled man.

We have been overwhelmed by the tributes paid by even those we never knew had any relationship with him, by the testimonies given by men, women and children from far and near, and our pain today is drastically lessened by the realization that there was nobody who came to him for any kind of help that left disappointed. He dedicated his life to the service of humanity. This realization is not sudden, though.

We have always known that Papa had a heart of gold and was selfless. He would readily inconvenience himself to solve the other man’s problem. In him, all who had problems had a listening ear. Since 1993 when he finally decided to come back home after working with Techint Limited, an Argentine construction company in Enugu, his house became a Mecca of sorts to all who wanted solutions to one problem or the other. He had time for everybody; he had the patience of a dove and the Wisdom of Solomon.

He was also a charismatic leader who played invaluable role in the development of his community. He never shied away from any assignment which in his opinion would uplift his people. Till death he was the Financial Secretary of ‘Group Four,’ Amaiyi. He was also the chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) of Ndi Nze Ahiazu.  He worked tirelessly to ensure that the association which membership he cherished so much was bequeathed with an enduring constitution.

We mourn because physically our father is no longer with us. But we are also not unmindful of St. Paul’s admonition in 1 Thessalonica, Chapter 4, Verses 13 – 14 thus: “But I don’t want you to be ignorant brethren concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.”

Papa ran a good race and we are comforted by the knowledge that he has gone home to partake in the promises of God. Rest in Peace.

 

Wife and Children  

Interesting Times Are Here Again (1)

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Published: March 31, 2009

 How many of you wake up from sleep these days with the feeling that you are being transported back to the years of 2005 and 2006? That is the feeling I get now. This is the season of political endorsements. It doesn’t matter that the elections are still more than two years away. It doesn’t matter if those being endorsed have nothing to show for the billions of Naira they appropriated on our behalf. What is important is that some pockets must be filled with our patrimony. And to do this, groups are springing up like mushrooms, declaring emphatically that there is no vacancy in one Government House or the other. These are indeed interesting times. It is even going to be more interesting as the months roll by and the 2011 election year draws near. Like I pointed out recently, governance has ceased in the country, except, perhaps, in Lagos. It is not as if there has been much of it in the last 22 months, anyway. But it is bound to get worse because even the pretence at governance will stop. From now on, it will be raw, red politics. Whatever decisions the President makes from now will be informed, not by the needs of the people and desire to make life more meaningful for them; not by a genuine desire to solve the many problems confronting Nigerians; not by a longing to help the country surmount the dire economic problems facing it, but the inordinate ambition to consolidate and cling on to power. As it is with the President, so it is with every other “good politician” in the country. That explains the uproar that greeted the government’s White Paper on the Uwais Electoral Reforms Committee Report. It is all about politics. It is indubitable that whatever changes were made by the Presidency were informed by the politics of 2011 and not a sincere desire to make the electoral process more credible. Ironically, even the so-called opposition groups shouting at the roof top are also not doing so because they believe in the sanctity of the ballot box. They are alarmed that the man they thought was a political dove is not one after all. He is as hawkish as they come. He is also a man adroit at the game of politics Nigeriana. Yar’Adua is the archetypal Nigerian politician, also schooled in the ways of the “master tacticians” like Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former governor of Lagos State, who is being celebrated as a political whiz kid from the Oduduwa race. From his body language, the President wants a second term and he is working very hard at it. Just like every other Nigerian politician he is busy politicking, building political structures in order to have a wind at his back in 2011. But in the process, governance has been thrown to the dogs because, for sure, he is not going to run for a second term on his record of achievements during his first term. Truth be told, in Nigeria, nobody ever does. His ability to win a second term will depend not on his track record of performance, and by extension the endorsement of the people, but the efficiency of his ‘political structure.’ There is also a school of thought which believes that what is going on now in Aso Rock is tactical maneuvering. They insist that Yar’Adua won’t re-contest, that he will anoint someone else to succeed him. Not a few pundits believe that the cap fits his newest son-in-law, Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State. Time will tell. But Yar’Adua is not alone. The governors are also busy using the people’s commonwealth to set up political structures which is no more than recruiting thugs, those who will, if need be cause mayhem in the polity. They are busy arming them. These are the people who will snatch ballot boxes in 2011.

As Okiro Prepares To Bow Out Of Police

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Published: March 17, 2009

There are indications that the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Sir Mike Okiro, will retire sometime in July. If that information is correct, then he should be preparing to proceed on his retirement leave in April. Okiro will be bowing out not because he has served the maximum 35 years. No. He is going because he has attained the 60-year age limit for public servants.

There is no gainsaying that Okiro has served Nigeria meritoriously and an appreciative country rewarded him adequately. As he goes, the question that should concentrate the mind of every Nigerian is who becomes the next IGP? And the reason is simple. When it comes to security of lives and property of the citizenry, the raison deter for every government, the job of the police is like no other job.

Ordinarily, who succeeds Okiro should neither be a subject of speculation nor intrigues; not for a government that has garnered so much political capital by elevating the rule of law mantra to a state creed, and definitely not for a security agency where hierarchy is everything. There is a natural order of succession and the most senior in rank should step into the big shoes he is leaving behind. But these are neither ordinary times in Nigeria nor is Nigeria itself, even at the best of times, an ordinary country.

These are no ordinary times because, though two years away, the politics of 2011 has come into flower. In a country where the police take it as part of their primary responsibility to aid the political party in power to rig elections, in picking the police chief, professionalism becomes a lamb to be slaughtered on the altar of political expediency.

The intrigues are bound to adorn a more sinister garb when the next in rank to the retiring IG is an Igbo. Now, to the uninitiated, that won’t make much meaning. Howbeit, the Igbo phobia is not only real, it is alive and kicking.

That explains why almost four decades after the debilitating civil war, the Igbo are still contending with the axiomatic glass ceiling. It explains why there are still some jobs in this country where, although there are no official rules to that effect, there are barriers that stop the Igbo from getting to the top. And to be precise, there has always been a conspiracy to deny the Igbo the opportunity of one of their own becoming the Inspector General of Police (IGP) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Will this change in 2009?

Time will tell. But as I write, the South East geopolitical zone remains the only one yet to produce an IGP since Nigeria got her independence on October 1, 1960. In the past 49 years, the North East has produce three. Alhaji Kam Salem was Nigeria’s Inspector General of Police all the nine years that General Yakubu Gowon was in power (1966 – 1975), which made him the longest serving IGP so far. Adamu Suleiman was IGP in the early days of the Shehu Shagari Presidency (1979 – 1981) and Gambo Jimeta was brought on board by General Ibrahim Babangida.

From the North West came two; Alhaji M.D. Yusufu who served in the Murtala Muhammed/Olusegun Obasanjo era from 1975 to 1979 and Ibrahim Coomasie who served between 1993 and 1999. From the North Central came one, Aliyu Attah, who served in the latter part of the Babangida military Presidency between 1989 and 1993. South West has produced four IGPs (the highest so far for any zone). Obasanjo ensured that in the eight years he was in office as civilian President, only his kinsmen were entrusted with the daunting task of securing Nigeria – M.A.K. Smith (1999 – 2002), Tafa Balogun (2002 – 2005) and Sunday Ehindero (2005 – 2007). Before them, Sunday Adewusi had served as the IGP under Shehu Shagari between 1981 and 1983.

The South South has also had its fair share having produced three IGPs so far. In fact, the first indigenous IGP, Louis Orok Edet (1964 – 1966) in the heady days of Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, hailed from the zone. Etim Inyang served in the latter part of General Muhammadu Buhari’s 20-month rule and the early days of Babangida (1984 – 1986). And of course, Mike Okiro who is the incumbent hails from the zone.

And the question needs to be asked! Why is it that the South East has never produced an IGP? Could it be because the entire Igbo race has been unable in the past 49 years to produce officers worthy of the plum job? Even those who initiated this policy and are hell bent on perpetuating it will agree that nothing is farther from the truth. The Igbo have produced some of the finest officers that have made the Force proud both at home and abroad.

If this is the truth, as indeed it is, then why this glass ceiling?

For the avoidance of doubt, let me state here and now that I am neither an apostle of Quota System nor a devotee of the god of Federal Character. Why? The way these policies are implemented rewards indolence, promotes mediocrity and spurns excellence. I am a student of the school of thought that believes that people should be able to pull themselves by their own bootstraps, rather than waiting to be given an opportunity over and above fellow citizens simply because they are from a particular part of the country. If Nigeria must make any meaningful progress, our best brains must be tapped to serve the country. Part of the problem here is that in a most invidious manner, excellence is always sacrificed as a burnt offering to the deity of torpor (Federal Character).

And it is on merit that I say the Igbo have officers who can effectively step into Okiro’s shoes and make Nigeria proud. One of such men is Ogbonna Onovo, a Deputy Inspector General of Police (a rank he has worn in the past seven years – March 2002 till date, making him one of the longest serving DIGs in the history of Nigeria’s Police Force). By the time Okiro retires in July, Onovo, who was born February 7, 1953, will only be 56 years (four years short of the mandatory retirement age of 60). Having joined the Police as a cadet officer on August 1, 1977, after graduating from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, when Okiro retires in July, Onovo will still have three and half years to serve before the mandatory 35 years.

He has seen it all, both as a field man and administrator. He is an officer and a gentleman with international recognition. As the Chairman of the National Drug law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), he won “special commendation award” from the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) “for his meritorious contributions to the war against drugs” (2000); “letter of commendation” from Her Majesty’s Customs Services, United Kingdom “for his tremendous contributions to anti-narcotic smuggling” (2000); “letter of commendation” from the Yorkshire Constabulary, Leicester, United Kingdom “for his role in the arrest and prosecution of a fugitive drug baron for murder” (2000); and “Spirit of Detroit” Medallion Award from Mayor Andy Coleman of Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A. (1992), among others.

Two times in recent years, he has been by-passed. When Ehindero retired on June 1, 2007, President Yar’Adua appointed him acting IGP being the next most senior officer. Twenty-four hours later, that decision was reversed. Many thought he would resign in protest. He didn’t because Nigeria is the issue and service is his calling. It is a mark of the strength of his character and discipline that he served under a junior officer without any rancour.

But this time, there will be no justifiable reason unless the lightning rods of the almighty and victorious Nigerian army that dealt with the Igbo in the past and thoroughly defeated the “rag tag Biafran Army,” as the then Adjutant General of the Nigerian Army, Ambassador Oluwole Rotimi, haughtily reminded us recently, are still seeing the Igbo as a conquered people that should never be allowed to accede to certain positions in their own country.

But for how long will that mindset continue to prevail? Denying Onovo the position he is eminently qualified to occupy because he is Igbo will be a great disservice to the country because ultimately, the nation which will be denied his wealth of experience will be the ultimate loser.

Why 2011 Worries Me

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

 

Published: March 3, 2009

 

Once again, there is a tantalizing whiff of politics in the air. Not that the perfume ever faded. No. Nigeria is a country in a permanent state of politicking. The end of one election cycle marks the beginning of another. Unlike in some other democracies, there is no break, no period for governance. It is all about politics and little or no governance.

 

How can there be governance when those who claim to have won the 2007 elections are still in court almost two years after with those they claim to have defeated? The way things are going, some of the election petitions will still be in the tribunals by the time elections are held in 2011. And the vicious circle will continue.

 

But 2011 promises to be a very interesting election year, not necessarily in substance but drama. We are not likely to have better quality of candidates. The politicians will still be up to their shenanigans. The electoral environment may be less rancorous, though, and the political parties, especially the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) may be more internally democratic, not necessarily because the politicians have changed for the better but because, we no longer have a president who would swear that as long as he remains the Commander-in-Chief, a candidate of his party will never contest an election.

 

If any good will ever come out of the lackluster Umaru Yar’Adua President, it is the possibility that, unlike his predecessor, Olusegun Obasanjo, he will most likely create a level playing field. Not that the hawks in the party, men and women, who thrive in political chicanery won’t try to play the vicious game as usual, but they are less likely to get a listening ear in Yar’Adua than they got in Obasanjo who was a willing ally in their perfidy.

 

Does that mean that come 2011, we will be out of the political woods? Far from it! I dare predict that ballot boxes will still be snatched; some people will still be assassinated because of their political beliefs. It may even be more violent because the fact that there won’t be an Obasanjo to ride roughshod over everybody else and intimidate the opposition into submission will embolden the electorate to protect their votes. In which case, anybody who tries to tamper with such votes will be fiercely resisted.

 

But I am already enjoying it. Less than two years after the last elections were held and more than two years before new polls will be conducted, the political intrigues and arm-twisting are sharpening. The sound bites are getting ominously loud. Such catch-phrases as “No vacancy in Government House” made popular by Chief Tony Anenih when he was still Obasanjo’s political doppelganger, are beginning to re-echo.

 

Over the weekend, the Deputy Governor of Oyo State, Mr. Taofeek Arapaja, a man whose only qualification for such high state office is that he was late Lamidi Adedibu’s lickspittle, pasted a caveat emptor at the gate of Oyo State Government House, Agodi. To him, there is no vacancy at Agodi House and those nursing the ambition of occupying it in 2011 should perish the thought. “There is no vacancy in Agodi Government House. Let them (aspirants) cooperate with Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala or look elsewhere to actualize their dreams,” he told PDP members over the weekend.

 

It would have been heartwarming if Arapaja is saying that because of the excellent performance of their government in the past 22 months, he is sure that the people will pass a vote of confidence in them by voting them in for a second term. No! Oyo governorship has become Alao-Akala’s birthright and he must serve a second term, willy-nilly, whether the people want him or not.

 

And this is what worries me. Who are the likes of Arapaja speaking for when they make such statements? Could he be speaking on behalf of the people? Did he consult them before claiming that there is no vacancy? What if the people say otherwise tomorrow? Won’t Arapaja and his boss try to subvert the electoral will of the people? Shouldn’t a second term in office be a reward for job well done in the first term?

 

At the centre, a lot of interesting political scenarios are beginning to manifest. There are indications that at last, the marriage of convenience between General Muhammed Buhari and the apparatchik of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) will not subsist till 2011. Could he be crossing over to the highly reinvigorated Action Congress (AC) to run with Senator Bola Tinubu, who has clearly emerged as the political whiz kid of the Southwest? Tinubu is gradually but steadily stepping into Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s big political shoes. With his big war chest and undeniable political brilliance, it will be a formidable team. If that happens, it will be the second time in less than two decades that Nigerians will be presented with a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket. The first time was in 1993 when late Moshood Abiola picked Alhaji Babagana Kingibe as his running mate in the June 12, 19993 Presidential election. The ticket triumphed but the election was annulled by General Ibrahim Babangida.

 

If Buhari moves over to the AC, then former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, is obviously out of the party. A master in political double-speak, Atiku will not confirm if he is going back to the PDP, the party he exited to contest the Presidency on the platform of the AC in 2007. That year, he promised Tinubu the Vice Presidential ticket but political expediency made him to dump Tinubu and opt for Senator Ben Obi. There is every reason to believe that the former Lagos State Governor has neither forgotten nor forgiving, particularly when he had to forgo the Senatorial seat which Ganiyu Solomon is now occupying. Now that Tinubu has the party firmly in his grips, it will definitely be pay back time.

 

So, to PDP Atiku goes back as he hinted last week. “If God spares my life till 2011, I will run again, either on PDP ticket, opposition or as an independent,” he reportedly told a group of friends at a restaurant in London on Thursday. But it is nothing surprising. It was obvious even to the politically undiscerning that his meeting with Obasanjo is nothing more than a political gang-up against the jaded Yar’Adua regime. If Atiku picks the ticket, he will likely still look towards the Southeast for a running mate. Former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, is waiting in the wings, that is, if Obasanjo approves.

 

But the former Vice President is bound to meet, perhaps the stiffest opposition in his entire political career this time around. Believe it or not, Yar’Adua wants a second term in office and he is prepared to fight for it. Atiku likes boasting that he is the founder of the PDP but the fact remains that as the President, Yar’Adua is no longer a joiner, he is now a co-founder. He is likely to run for a second term with the Vice President, Jonathan Goodluck. Despite the muted cry in some quarters that some Northerners are opposed to him because he is not assertive, the fact remains that the president has “done well for his people.” The fight between Yar’Adua and Atiku will be interesting.

 

But again, my worry is that these are men who see power as an end in itself, not a means to an end. In a 21^st century world where countries faced with gargantuan problems, are putting the right foot forward leadership-wise, here, it is politics for the sake of politics and quest for power for the narrowest of interests. Just like we have realized in the past 22 months, the way we are going, come May 29, 2011, we will, once again, be out on a limb.

        

To Avoid Voting N2b In 2010 For Generators

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Published: February 24, 2009

Attention of Nigerians will, once more, be riveted on the National Assembly, or precisely on the House of Representatives, this week. The lower chamber (or is it equal chamber) of the National Assembly is set to commence debate on the controversial report of its Committee on Power and Steel that strove to unravel the expenditure in the power sector in the eight years of Olusegun Obasanjo presidency.

The probe itself was full of drama. It was supposed to be. The amount involved is colossal, ranging from $3 billion to $6 billion to $13 billion (depending on who you want to believe – Obasanjo, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, etc). Even if we take the least amount as the actual total expenditure on the power sector within the period under review, the fact remains that it is still massive. But that is not the only reason why the probe generated a lot of interest.

The major reason for the uproar is because the massive investment, ironically, resulted in colossal failure, at least to the extent that Nigerians are still made to hug darkness.

And the questions are legion. Why, after such huge investment has there been no seeming commensurate improvement in the power situation? How long more do the long-suffering masses of this country have to wait to enjoy what people from most other countries, including some of the poorest African countries, are taking for granted?

Nigerians are disconcerted because they quite appreciate that regular power supply is central to any effort aimed at achieving the country’s developmental goals. And yet, they watch helplessly as their leaders grope in the dark, obviously flustered by the problem. To appreciate the precariousness of the situation it bears restating that experts say that Nigeria, a country of 140 million people, needs at least 60,000 mw of electricity. Today, our generating capacity hovers between 1,300 and 2,000 mw, with an ominous promise to deteriorate further if nothing urgent and drastic is done.

So when the report comes up for debate, tempers are bound to flare up again as they did during the public hearing. Many Nigerians who are beginning to believe that their country is, indeed, jinxed will become more despondent. Their frustration may be further worsened by the fact that, like most things in the country, nothing will come out of all the noise; it will be yet another circus.

But it is only logical that having come this far, the debate must go. It is only hoped that at the end of the day, the lawmakers will muster the political will not only to recommend sanctions against those found wanting but also the grace to commend those that did their jobs well.

Otherwise, Nigerians will be left with no option than to finally conclude that all the noises being made by the lawmakers are no more than ploys to extort money from those at the helm of affairs in the various ministries, government departments and agencies.

The lawmakers owe this generation of Nigerians and indeed generations yet unborn the patriotic duty of ensuring that all funds which the country must have lost through any shady deal in the past are recovered.

But the outcome of the probe in itself is not a solution to the debilitating power problem, not even if all those found guilty are sent to jail. To be fair, the power problem did not start today. It didn’t even start with the Obasanjo administration in 1999. What we are suffering today is the consequence of the almost four decades neglect of the power sector resulting in monumental decay of infrastructure. Matters came to a head when in March 2000, the entire country was thrown into an unprecedented six-day darkness.

So, the probe in itself will not give Nigerians light.

What is required is a deliberate and concerted effort by the government to find out what went wrong and remedy the situation quickly.

Unfortunately, the administration of President Umaru Yar’Adua is not one known for making haste while the axiomatic sun shines. For a government that “threatened” to declare emergency in the power sector from the outset, it is regrettable that almost two years down the road, the battle to salvage the power sector, seems practically lost. The promise to generate 6,000 mw by December remains forlorn.

While it is good to plan in order not to make the very mistakes that brought us to this sorry pass again, the fact of the matter, all protestations to the contrary notwithstanding, is that we are actually planning to fail. As things stand now, the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) that is supposed to be at the heart of all efforts to salvage the power sector is endangered as the Yar’Adua government romances with the policy somersaults which continue to remain the cause of the country’s underdevelopment.

The 2005 Power Sector Reforms Act which provided for the creation of the Nigerian Energy Regulatory Commission (NERC), charged with the responsibility of developing the regulatory framework necessary for the creation of an environment conducive to private sector participation in the industry and the unbundling of the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) did not envisage the appointment of Executive Vice Chairman of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

The idea of unbundling NEPA into 18 autonomous business units is to have organizations that are commercially sensitive and alive and to attract private capital in a sector where the government seems to have failed woefully. By appointing Alhaji Suleiman Ibrahim as the helmsman of the PHCN, in violation of the Reforms Act, the unbundling programme seems to be systematically dismantled. If this is done, it will tantamount to turning the hand of the clock back and can only confirm the widely held view that some interest groups in the country are ill at ease at any attempt to straighten out sectors such as power which they perceive as their honey pot. If this tendency is not checked, private capital in the sector can only beat a retreat and Nigerians will be worse off, power wise.

What is needed in the power sector now is to build on whatever is on ground. What the government ought to have done in the last two years which it claims to have used in planning is to ascertain how much funds have been committed to the power projects so far, who was paid what and for which job; how much work was done and what is left to be done and by who?

If it is true that all the 21 gas turbines needed for NIPP phase 1 have not only been procured but are indeed in the country, where are they? Is it true that most of the equipment are decaying at the Nigerian Ports? What is stopping their being delivered to where they are needed? Can the country afford to terminate any of the projects at this stage? If we do, is there a guarantee for refund? If the answer is no, shouldn’t we then insist on completing all the NIPP projects, even as we ensure that those found guilty of any misdemeanor will be adequately punished?

In any case, has this government any choice? Even if it is found out Obasanjo or any other person actually defrauded the country in the course of executing the power projects, has this government the political will to bring them to trial? If the answer is no, as it obviously is, then why don’t we take the bull by the horn by ensuring that in next year’s budget, the presidency and MDAs do not vote another N2 billion for generators?            

Babangida’s Specious Argument

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Published: February 10, 2009

Have you heard the latest in this Amusement Park called Nigeria? General Ibrahim Babangida, the self-styled Military President, told Nigerians last Wednesday that he annulled the June 12, 1999 presidential election, won by Chief MKO Abiola, because he wanted to avert “a bloody coup.” This great confession is coming 16 years after that heinous crime was committed and after so many other hollow and fallacious reasons had been given. A guest on Mosunmola Abudu’s Mnet talk show programme, ‘Moments with Mo,’ Babangida gave what, perhaps, will qualify as his most specious reason so far for annulling an election he admitted most people acclaimed to be “free and fair.” Said he: “June 12 was accepted by Nigerians as the best of elections in Nigeria. It was free and fair. But unfortunately, we cancelled that election. I used the word unfortunately, for the first time. We were in government at the time and we knew the possible consequences of handing over to a democratic government. We did well that we wanted ours to be the last military coup deta’t. To be honest with you, the situation was not ripe to hand over at the time. Forget about the wrong things that happened in politics. The issue of security of the nation was a threat and we would have considered ourselves to have failed, if six months after handover, there was another coup.” To drive home this hollow argument, Babangida further said: “The issue was the security of the nation and we considered that we would have failed after handing over power because six months after, there would have been a coup….The security threat was that at that time there was all these fears. I went through a coup d’etat. I survived a coup d’etat. We did not want it to happen.” Asked if indeed there was any real threat of a coup, he answered in the affirmative. “Yes, that’s right and it would have been a bit bloody. But then, not many people wanted to believe what we said. But we knew what was going on.” Now, Babangida is no ordinary Nigerian. He was not a run of the mill soldier either. And at the time he was making this all-important decision, no Nigerian (living or dead) was more dexterous at the evil pastime of coup plotting. Now, to avoid a coup against a government that was to emerge through a tortuous and multi-billion Naira political transition his regime foisted on the country; a coup he knew the plotters, an offence that carries maximum punishment; this master coup-plotter, who had ensured that tens (perhaps hundreds) of the finest officers, most of them his personal friends, paid the ultimate price for plotting against his own government opted to annul the election. To avert this ‘looming bloodshed,’ Babangida decided to supplant the electoral will of the people by installing an illegal Interim National Government (ING), members of which he unilaterally constituted. “So, we started the interim government with a life span of six months, from June 1993 to November 1993 …during which there would be new political system, new elections and new government also,” he pontificated. How puerile and specious can an argument get? How can an interim government, which was lame duck from the outset, a government that lacked legitimacy from day one be a bulwark against coups? How could a hapless and illegitimate ING be better positioned to rebuff the threat of ambitious political soldiers than a legitimate government? How could Babangida, a master coup plotter, have shied away from the last, and come to think of it, first selfless service he would have rendered this country – using his wealth of experience to rein in the would-be coupists and safeguarding the incoming civilian governmnet? The self-acclaimed Evil Genius left the task for Chief Ernest Shonekan, a man that had no clue what to do with power. Did Babangida tell Shonekan that some military officers would plot against his government? If he did, did he also give him the antidote? If Babangida, who flagged off his dubious transition programme shortly after he seized power on August 27, 2007 could not conjure a coup-proof talisman in the eight years he was in power, how did he expect the ING to create a “new political system,” conduct “new elections,” and form a “new government also,” in six months? In any case, for fear of a “bloody coup,” which at best is phantom and in his self-confessed “patriotic” (or is it messianic) zeal to ensure that his government remained the last military regime in the country, Babangida annulled a free and fair election. And what was the outcome? In five months, there was a military putsch that threw up the most fascist regime this country ever had. In ensuring that his regime was the last military government, Babangida created conditions that made it easy to have two military governments after him; the country was pushed to the brink of disintegration; many lost their lives while escaping from the crisis precipitated by the annulment; properties worth billions of Naira were lost and Nigeria became a pariah in the international community. What a dubious way to save the country from itself. Babangida may well tell his cock and bull story to the marines. It is both an unintelligent and cowardly excuse to make for such a grievous crime against fatherland which will continue to haunt him. But the question Nigerians should be asking is this: Why tell this fairy tale now? The answer lies in the politics of 2011. Asked if he would run for the Presidency in 2011, he riposted “under what circumstance” before remembering that he is “not getting younger.” Although in his characteristic evasiveness, he refused to categorically answer the question, it was easy to read his lips. And the obvious message, despite his obfuscations, is that a shot at the presidency in two year’s time is not ruled out. But lacking the courage to take the bull by the horn, he would not want to join the fray unless he is sure there would be no contest. He wants to be assured that the presidency is his for the asking before he will show his hands. The circumstance he is asking for is the same circumstance under which Olusegun Obasanjo became President in 1999, a circumstance which he, almost single-handedly, created. Babangida talked about “correcting certain things, which a lot of you will not buy because it will look to you as punitive.” And you wonder. This is a man that was in power for eight years as a maximum ruler, a man to whom power was an end in itself, rather than a positive force for common good. Babangida wielded power for all the wrong reasons and 16 years out of power, he has never done anything that shows he has imbibed a new philosophy of power. So, what is he going to correct? A man that finds it impossible to apologise for the annulment of the June 12 election, how can we be sure that given a second chance, he will not do same again? Truth be told, Babangida is an unrepentant dictator who has nothing to offer Nigerians in terms of leadership in a 21st Century world. His time is in the past. As Obasanjo proved most conclusively, recycling yesterday’s men in leadership positions is a recipe for disaster. At a time like this when world leaders are battling to save their countries from global economic crisis, what will a President Ibrahim Babangida bring to the table? How to plot coup and plunder a country’s patrimony? He should remain a relic of our past, one of the sad reminders of the great opportunities our country missed because of the greed and shortsightedness of a few parasites that call themselves leaders. The time to say, ‘No Babangida, not again, is now.’

Still On Yar’Adua’s Vacation

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

 

Published: Tuesday, February 3, 2009

 

 

The world is in crisis. That fact is indubitable. Whether it is global warming with the dire consequences of rising seas, expanding deserts and disappearing forests or the faltering world economy, leaders are working frantically to see how their countries could be pulled back from the precipice because they all appreciate that this is a planet in peril. Except, perhaps the leader of the most populous black nation in the world – President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

 

At the just concluded World Economic Forum in Davos, they were all there, trying to work out modalities for building a new “global financial architecture” in the face of the pernicious economic crisis. Of course, despite assurances that our country was immune to the crisis, it has become clear that when the dust finally settles, the financial crisis which has been dubbed a “made in America disaster,” may have the most devastating impact on Nigeria. Nigerians are going to be the worst hit.

 

Already we are in a mess. But because we are a people not used to data and immune to shock, we have not been able to fully come to terms with our precarious position. But what economic situation could be gloomier? For a country that earns well over 80 percent of its revenue from oil, what could be worse than an oil market that has collapsed below the budgetary benchmark of $45? For an economy that leans heavily on imports, what could be scarier than the crash of its local currency? For an economy without any industrial base, where the few industries that persevered, thinking that they could weather the storm have finally bowed to the hard realities of doing business in a country where cost of production, despite the glut of cheap labour, is one of the costliest in the world, it is only a matter of time before the economic roof comes crashing on all of us.

 

Nigeria’s stock market is said to be the worst hit globally and suddenly, the only investment platform which almost everybody embraced has literally collapsed. And now, the vibes from the banks, whose consolidation a few years back, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Chukwuma Soludo, told us recently is the country’s bulwark against the global financial mess, are anything but right.

 

The labour market is saturated. Unemployment has reached an unprecedented level. How do I know? No week rolls by these days without almost ten people sending their Curriculum Vitae to me. They are men and women, most with second degrees, who are desperately searching for jobs, which have become very elusive.

 

A country in such dire socio-economic situation ought to have a government that is proactive. The President of such a country should be frowning at the fact that there are only 24 hours in a day because that is not going to be enough.

 

But here we are, at a time like this, debating President Umaru Yar’Adua’s vacation. As you are reading this, the man must be spending the last days of his leave, a time his Special Adviser on Communications, Mr. Segun Adeniyi, told the nation he would spend reading books and reflecting on the state of the nation. This is coming at the time the President told the nation that he is now ready to roll up his sleeve and work, having spent 20 months doing what he ought to have done long before assuming the presidency – marshaling out plans of what to do with power.

 

But as it is wont to do, the government has again missed it. This must be one of the most incompetent presidencies in the world. Why does the Yar’Adua government bungle even the simplest of assignments? To be fair, I am not sold on the argument that the President breached the constitution by not transmitting to the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives in writing that he was proceeding on vacation as Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution seems to imply. It is not compulsory that he does so unless he wants the Vice President to act as the President in his absence. The implication is that Yar’Adua does not want the Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan, to act as the President. It is his prerogative.

 

But why go on leave at such a critical moment when other leaders are working round the clock? Why go on leave at the beginning of a year that many admit is the most critical year of his presidency having wasted almost two years? Why go on leave at a time the National Assembly is busy padding the Appropriation Bill and does not seem to be in a hurry to pass the budget?

 

The fact remains that the President needed some rest not because of hard work but because his health is failing. I feel very bad whenever the nation engages in this pastime of speculating about the his health. I feel bad because I know how unsettling it can be for a man who is obviously sick, sitting back to read all the comments on the pages of newspaper, some of them very unfair. It casts all of us in the mould of a people without feeling. But can that be true? My answer is no. This is the President of a country; a man in whose hands our fate and that of our children lie. So, his health transcends his person because it is a national issue.

 

I was reliably informed last year when his medical trip to Saudi Arabia was bungled, as usual, that it was agreed that he should come back home to douse the tension, stay a while and then proceed on leave so as to get proper medical attention which he had not been able to get since becoming the chief tenant at Aso Rock. From all indications, it was this leave that he was getting set to embark upon before the story was leaked. In a desperate bid to avert the brouhaha that attended last year’s Saudi Arabia fiasco, the man opted to stay back in the country, preferring instead to convert Obudu Cattle ranch, Cross River State, Dodan Barracks, Lagos State and his home town, Katsina, Katsina State, to Presidential retreat venues.

 

The questions are; for how long must be play this puerile game of ostrich? For how long must we bury our heads in the sand, believing that nobody is seeing us even when the rest of our body is exposed? If President Yar’Adua goes back to Aso Rock this week, will he be rejuvenated to face the onerous task of superintending over our affairs at a time like this as Segun Adeniyi would want us believe? Is it not better the president goes for medical treatment even if it is for two months? Shouldn’t his health be the most important thing? Who is he trying to impress. Shouldn’t there be limits to spin?

 

Truth be told, Yar’Adua is not governing Nigeria. It is in his personal interest and the interest of the country that this farce ends sooner than later.

 

2011: Neither Yar’Adua Nor Atiku

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Published: Tuesday, January 27, 2009

 

A few months ago, my hardworking correspondent in Adamawa State, Sule Lazarus, wrote a story that former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, met with his political associates in the state to sound them out on the possibility of returning to his former party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). I have always had confidence in Sule, yet the story looked implausible.

My dilemma was compounded by the fact that none of those who were said to have attended the meeting agreed to be quoted. I called somebody, sufficiently close to Atiku, who should know if such a meeting took place. In the past, my source never failed to confirm a story. At most, he would plead anonymity.

 But he claimed ignorance of this particular meeting. I made two other calls, drew blank, and decided to drop the story. The golden rule in this profession is, “If you are in doubt, leave out.” I didn’t want to be out the following morning on a limb.

The story sounded incredible because it was hard to imagine Atiku going back to a party that thoroughly disgraced him. How could he, again, associate politically with men and women who, not only chased him out of a party he helped found, but also, almost, denied him the opportunity to exercise his franchise, his inalienable right to stand for election?

What is more, Atiku “won” the 2007 Presidential election and would have been Nigeria’s President today if not for the hanky-panky of the Professor Maurice Iwu-led Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). So, if he was able to win the Presidency on the platform of the Action Congress (AC), why go back to the PDP, a party that has become inconsequential to his political future?

Besides, can he afford to leave in the lurch all those who followed him to the AC, and who not only ensured he emerged, unopposed, the presidential candidate of the fledgling party, but also became victims of the collateral damage of the war of attrition between him and Obasanjo? Such a move by a man described by his numerous admirers as a consummate politician was, simply, imponderable.

But how naïve I was. I failed to reckon with the legendary capacity of the average Nigerian politician to lick his vomit if that will advance his political cause. Subsequent events since I threw away Sule’s super exclusive have shown that Atiku is not only scheming to go back to the PDP but is also prepared to do anything possible, including walking on all fours to Obasanjo, to make that happen.

And that was exactly what he did penultimate Monday when he made a surprise visit to Obasanjo at his Abeokuta mansion. Asked if the visit signals reconciliation, Atiku explained that there was no “personal animosity between me and the former president. We had political disagreement which could even happen between a father and son.” Two days later, the Atiku Political Organisation issued a statement explaining that the fear that unresolved “political feuds and petty elite bickering” will continue to undermine the country’s political and economic progress led both men to resolve to work with other patriots and statesmen to address critical national challenges.

“The meeting was not about the 2011 presidential election as some people have misinterpreted it. The two leaders decided to bury the hatchet and focus their attention, redirect their energies and harness their collective experiences for the benefit of the country

“It was not about the two of them. It is about the future of our beloved country. At a critical moment, such as this, in the life of a nation, great men and women must put aside political differences and work for the progress of the country. This is the context in which the Abeokuta meeting should be seen by all well-meaning Nigerians,” the statement read in part.

What a patriotic duo. Ordinarily, Nigerians should count themselves blessed for having such selfless leaders. Except that the two “altruistic” men had eight years to do what they are claiming to be doing now but frittered away the opportunity on the altar of debauchery. Or could it be that Nigeria is at a much more critical moment now than it was in 1998/99 when the two were given the ultimate powers in the land to pull back the country from the precipice?

Nobody should make any mistake about what is happening. Atiku is no fool. He knows quite well that the enormous goodwill he seemed to have garnered in the last two years of their presidency was more a rejection of Obasanjo than an endorsement of his leadership capabilities. Nigerians, having found themselves sandwiched between the axiomatic deep blue sea and the devil between 2006 and 2007, and in their determined opposition against Obasanjo’s inordinate ambition to rule Nigeria in perpetuity, saw in Atiku an ally.

Atiku played his new role well because he also saw in Obasanjo’s aspiration the cemetery of his own political ambition. So, it was a situation of his desperate fight for political survival finding a meeting point with the overwhelming aspiration of Nigerians to see to the end of an administration that became a curse rather than a blessing.

What is happening now is that Atiku, having not buried his Presidential ambition, a legitimate ambition by all means, and because he is no fool, knows that Nigerians cannot, in good conscience, elect him President in a free and fair election. To achieve his ambition, therefore, he has to fall back on the PDP rigging machine, a machine he knows so well because he was in the saddle both in 1999 and 2003, to capture Nigeria in 2011.

It is not in Obasanjo’s character to forgive past hurts. And Atiku hurt him pretty good. Therefore, if the former President were to live to his vengeful reputation, he may be deliberately baiting Atiku so as to finally deliver the sucker punch.

But even if this reconciliation is genuine, it cannot be because Obasanjo has suddenly fallen in love with Atiku again. He hasn’t that capacity. It may well be that just as it happened between Atiku and Nigerians in 2007, both Obasanjo and his former deputy have now found a new common enemy in the incumbent President, Umaru Yar’Adua, and are prepared to bury their very deep and fundamental political differences in order to deal with this new foe.

Atiku still sees Yar’Adua as a usurper, a man who is reaping where he did not sow.  Obasanjo has every reason to feel betrayed by his successor. Both would like to teach the political upstart (his eight years as governor notwithstanding), the political lesson of his life.

But they will see their match in the President, not because of Yar’Adua per se, but because the hawks around him, who believe it is their turn to milk the cow called Nigeria are up for a fight.

So, where do all these intrigues leave Nigeria and Nigerians? In the cesspit where we have always been.

The sad thing is that in this 21^st century world, beset with grave economic crisis; a world where governments, in repudiation of neo-capitalism, are beginning to regulate and run businesses once more, every country is putting their best and brightest sons and daughters in leadership positions. In Nigeria, the reverse is the case. We are working hard to ensure that men with tunnel vision entrench themselves in the commanding heights of government. What a country! What a people!